Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Foodie Fatties had an awesome evening at Jones Coffee's last "Wheel Food Wednesday" in Pasadena, CA. There were about 9 trucks there and a good crowd squeezing in the small lot. Some trucks of course seemed to get more action than others, but all seemed to be enjoyed by the crowd of all ages. We will begin to post events now on our blog sight as well as on our Facebook Page. If you would like to be kept up to date on the events we will be attending, or promoting, then check in to our Facebook page now and then until we get a calender up and running on our blog. If you happen to visit us on Facebook please show your love and "Like" us!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

"Da Munch Box" is a new truck hitting the streets of L.A. Started by a family from New York they have old root East coast street food running through their veins. They are bringing some surprising and delightful new twists to the West coast.

In a nut shell their vision is a truck which exemplifies East meets West. This can be seen (and very well tasted) in the dish we tried when we arrived at their truck during the Third Annual Santa Anita Food Truck Festival. One of their most popular dishes, Da Munch Box, is a true classic of two coast favorites. The pastrami sandwich, made popular on the West coast (particularly in California), takes on an East coast twist when paired with the loved Coney Island Knish. The family make their knish in house and purchase their pastrami from a select vendor; adding their own special mix of seasoning.

The sandwich is much smaller than your typical pastrami, and smaller than we expected as well. It is made hearty by the knish which takes the place of the usual roll. Their pastrami is lean and cut thicker than the expected deli slice giving the sandwich added texture. And they do not seem to skimp on it due to the sandwich size. The knish is well seasoned, moist and flaky, with a nice grill on the outside. The sandwich comes with deli mustard, Swiss cheese, and pickles. The only downside to this sandwich we came across was keeping it together whilst indulging in its deliciousness. Substituting the knish for a roll is what sabotaged this aspect of the dining experience. Though after the first bite you do not care how hard it is to look like a lady whilst eating it you just want more and to get it in your mouth faster.

The sandwich also comes with coleslaw, but that need not be bothered with. It is bland and we were unfortunate enough to find a surprise bar code label hidden amongst the shredded cabbage. Though, as much as things like this may turn us off to the meal we are eating or an establishment we like to frequent, we must not let an incident such as this overshadow a good dish. Things like this happen all the time for we, as humans, are not perfect whether you go to a 5 star restaurant, roadside taco truck, or a hole-in-the-wall joint. Mistakes and accidents will happen in which you, the customer, have the choice to let it govern your eating experience. Whether or not you return, more people may come, and enjoy the food if it is good tasting and respectfully priced. I for one may be returning to "Da Munch Box" to partake in their East-West sandwich (though I'll leave the coleslaw alone). As well as an order of their fries which we were told by the owners are another popular dish. To the owners and workers traveling around in "Da Munch Box" good luck and good cooking on your journey into the L.A. food truck world!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

As you can tell it has been a busy summer for the Foodie Fatties. Sadly we have left you readers out in the cold with our lack of posts. But we assure you we will be back up and running soon! What with all the adventures and work the two of us have combined life gets pretty busy.... But you understand that, haha. Within the next few weeks we will be blogging about some trucks visited from May through August as well as some restaurants. One other interesting story concerning cooking with kids, colonial style will be included! Yes folks, we here at the Foodie Fatties...even when we are not posting...continue to eat large quantities of food. We hope to see you all back on our page soon; and thanks always to our loyal followers.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Foodie Fatties had a relaxing Saturday afternoon at the Third Annual Santa Anita Food Truck Festival. Located inside the racetrack on their delightful grounds it ended up being a nice cool day to be outside. Up to our ears in trucks we picked a few to showcase to you! From the die heart race fans stationed inside placing bets on the days races to the little kids running around with fingers sticky from giant snowcones, it seemed that everyone enjoyed their day. Reviews for all our fans will be coming soon! :-D

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

"When a man is small, he loves and hates food with a ferocity which soon dims."This is how MFK Fisher, one of the most legendary food writers from the 1940's, starts her essay, "When a Man is Small." She takes us on an out of body journey through the gastronomic changes we go through during various stages in life. From young childish pleasures and dislikes, to the ravishing appetite of youth, and the farewells to those foods we love in old age; which can no longer traverse the ins and outs of our digestive highway.Over the next few months we will be delving into our first tribute to MFK Fisher (1908-1992). We all have had our favorite delicacies throughout the years, as well as those few, or for some abundant, foods which haunt the dinner table. So we here at Foodie Fatties want to know the foods you love and the foods you hate. We will be compiling a list of these food items given to us by parents, children and individuals ages 0-50+ years old..... Basically anyone still living! ;-) Once we have a decent list for the various age groups we will let you vote for your favorite food (good and bad) in each age group.... Then the real fun will begin!We here at Foodie Fatties have given ourselves the challenge to revamp those foods people love and hate. We will attempt to turn your favorite foods into crazy yet delicious concoctions and those you hate into more bearable.... hopefully tasty meals and treats!Get ready to see some crazy stuff going on in the Foodie Fatties office these upcoming months! We will document, inform, update, remind, and show you how we create these dishes and how they turn out! Who knows.... maybe there will be some videoing.... a first here on the site! Wish us luck on this adventure! We hope you will join us for the ride!Till then,Bon Appetite!A&M

Friday, March 25, 2011

I was able to spend a delightful evening with a group of adventurers in Chinatown a few months ago, then again with a business partner earlier this month at a Chinese restaurant I was told about. A dear friend of mine was kind enough to take a group of us to Phoenix Inn, located in Chinatown just up the street from Philipe's. I later found out they also have an establishment in Alhambra; as well as 8 Phoenix Food Boutiques which specialize in fast, take-out Chinese food with a Southeast Asian flair. The restaurant in Chinatown is open late for you all nighters and party people! It is quite a small restaurant, but we had good luck both times getting seated with no wait.

My friend took the reigns when ordering, making sure we got to sample some of the best and most authentic dishes. When you are seated they bring you hot tea, and will courteously refill it when empty. They also have a good selection of drinks and desserts.

We started our meal off with a plate full of dessert; sampling a variety of mochi and custards which they display under glass at the front counter. We then dove into our main dishes!

Along with the fried and steamed rice we had:

Stir Fried Water Spinach in a Malay Sauce which turned out to be one of the best vegetable dishes I've ever had! Even veggie haters may agree... Just give it a try!

Sweet & Sour Pork which, as always, was absolutely delicious! Definitely a dish for those who lack the adventurous spirit.

Bali Style Chilean Sea Bass; a great seafood dish if your looking for something other than shrimp.

Shrimp and Glazed Walnut; battered and fried and glazed in a sweet sauce. Absolutely to die for!

Fried Tofu, for you adventurous folk! And also those who love tofu! Definitely one of my top ways to chow down on tofu.

Hong Kong Style Beef with a medley of veggies and a rich flavor.

Flat Rice Noodle, much like Pad Thai and equally delicious with your choice of meat.

All in all this is a great restaurant if you want some really good quality Chinese food. It's best going with a group so that you can try a whole variety of dishes and the price is good. If you ever find yourself in LA near Union Station... which I know some of you do, stop by the Phoenix Inn, grab a table, and dig in!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Hello Fellow Fatties!
The other night 3 food trucks were up in Pasadena, and of course, I was so there! It was also great because I had never tried these trucks before so I was VERY excited! First up will be the Cool Haus Truck.

This truck serves ice cream sandwiches. I bet you're wondering why this truck is so special? Well it's because you get to CREATE your own ice cream sandwich! You pick the cookie you want and then pick one of their many homemade ice creams to go with it. The coolest part was the edible wrapper! You can even order these babies for special events and customize the wrapper to your liking! How cool is that?

Shown here is the Nutella Toasted Almond ice cream sandwiched between two snicker-doodle cookies. I have to admit I am not a huge cookie fan, so it takes a lot to impress me. With that said, I have to say this cookie was pretty darn good. It wasn't too soft, or else it wouldn't be able to hold the ice cream. It was the perfect consistency and flavored just right. This ice cream is homemade and you can tell. It's very creamy and fresh. The toasted almonds complimented the hazlenut-ness of the nutella. Perfection. Can you believe that the NUTELLA ice cream did in fact taste like NUTELLA!?? It always seems that when you order something that is supposed to taste like nutella you just end up with something chocolate-y. But Cool Haus did it right. All in all I am happy to report that this truck is worth a trip! =)
Next up is the Border Grill Truck.

(Sorry some of the pictures aren't that great, it was at night and my camera wasn't wanting to cooperate) Anywho, since I did have dinner before this, I just got an order of Churro Tots.

The Churro Tots were dolce de leche infused with cinnamon sugar on top and came with a side of homemade whipped cream. They were freshly made and had a warm, melt in your mouth center. I was pleasantly surprised as to how good they were! I had never heard anything about the Boarder Grill Truck so I was going into this without any expectations. The truck also serves quesadillas, tacos and ceviche. But from what I saw when others were ordering, the portions of the food looked small. To give you an idea, this is the ceviche.

They call it, "Bringing modern Mexican flavors to a neighborhood near you."

It sounds and looks good, and seems like they use fresh ingredients. Check it out and let us know what you think! And definitely check out those Churro Tots! Last but not least is the PhyDough Truck (pronounced Fido).

I thought this was the cutest truck ever! Not only was this truck well made and designed, they serve dog treats! This truck serves already made dog treats in many different flavors like pumpkin, carrot honey, fig, and sesame agave to name a few.

They even sell ice cream! It is the Cool Haus for doggies! Haha In fact, Cool Haus makes the soy and yogurt-based ice cream for PhyDough! Also, they sell dough so you can go home and make the cookies yourself. The founder of the truck uses organic ingredients and everything is preservative-free. I thought this idea for a food truck was very unique and can't wait to see how far they get with it. Although I can't tell you how good it is, I know it is good for the dogs and my 2 doggies loved it! The owner of this truck even lets his canine friend tag along! How cute is that!? So thats it for today! Hope you enjoyed the review on these 3 food trucks!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Malaysia prides itself in being a prime example that people of different religions and cultures can live together in peace. Thus it is, like many countries now, a culinary melting pot. Living in the U.S. we are also lucky enough to have the opportunity to sample a cornucopia of dishes from around the world. Though on the flip side we also suffer from the Americanization of many dishes to suite our tastes. People from around the world come to the U.S. bringing their culture with them, though as we can see at times they must alter what they know to make it in the business world.

There are a lot of establishments in the LA area as well out towards Tuscan where you can get good quality Malaysian food, though it is hard to find the "authentic" stuff.Penang Malaysian Cuisine is one of the closest to the real thing, though the Americanization is apparent.

The restaurant itself is small, but rather spacious with a slight beach-side eatery atmosphere. They give you an extensive menu with lots of options; including a picture folder for every dish on the menu, for those of you who like to know what you're getting into. They provide you with small dishes if you choose to dine family style as well as chop-sticks, or a fork, if you're still a learner.

Penang focuses on Malaysian and Chinese-Malaysian dishes so don't be surprised if you see something on the menu that you thought wouldn't be Malaysian (such asPenang Char Kway Teow which we dined on, that is like the Chinese-Malaysian version of Pad Thai). This dish contained velvety flat noodles with shrimp and squid. If you like Pad Thai, you will surely like this.

The dishes and drink we ordered are some traditional dishes of Malaysia; ones you would be able to find everywhere along the streets. The dish mentioned above is an example of Chinese-Malaysian cuisine.

Besides the dish mentioned above we also ordered Roti Canai as an appetizer. This dish is like a crispy crape served with a curry and is eaten for breakfast a lot in Malaysia. You tear off pieces and then dip it in the curry (in this case a chicken curry) and it melts in your mouth. I can see why it would be a good breakfast food. It is light and savory.

We also dined onNasi Lemak, the national dish of Malaysia. This is also eaten a lot for breakfast and the name means "fatty rice" do to how it is cooked. The rice is soaked in coconut cream and then steamed. It is served with cucumber slices, dried anchovies (ikan bilis), a hard boiled egg, and a spicy sauce (sambal). It can also be paired with other items to make it more of a substantial meal. In this case ours was paired with chicken in a sort of "Malaysian gravy."

The gravy that covered the chicken I thought was very good, especially when mixed with the rice. I must admit this was the first time I have ever had anchovies (in this case dried) and I found them less fishy than expected though rather chewy. It was recommended to me that the best way to eat this dish is to mix some of the rice, anchovies, "gravy", hard boiled egg, and spicy sauce together. I enjoyed this dish eaten this way much more than when I was sampling everything separately, especially when it came to the anchovies. Though I do suggest trying each element by itself before mixing it together so that you are better able to appreciate each component.

We opted to not get dessert seeing that we were quite full afterward (I had just eaten at Outback 2 hours earlier). But I did get a very popular drink of soy milk and grass jelly (sweetened extra). It is pictured in the background of the first picture on this post. It was really delicious and refreshing and has a unique sweet grassy taste. Definitely a drink that needs to be tried. I myself want to learn how to make it!

All in all this was a great introduction to the realm of Malaysian cuisine and I cannot wait to go back and try some new dishes! Next time a dessert is definitely on the menu!

*If any of you have a Malaysian eatery you'd like us to try leave a comment on this post!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Greetings from Meaghan to all you ethnic culinary adventurists! This Sunday I will be traveling into the realm of Malaysian cuisine with a native. He will be showing me the ropes.... and "good eats".... when it comes to dining on the delicacies of this country. We will be eating at Penang Malaysian Cuisine on S. GlendoraAve. in W. Covina. All those who wish to join are welcome!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Hello Friends!
This is Alyssa and today I am blogging about a great food truck in Los Angeles called The Buttermilk Truck.

Ever since the HUGE explosion of food trucks you don't really know which ones are worth your time. BUT let me tell you, this truck definitely is! They serve breakfast food, a big change from all those other fusion trucks out there. They have two menus, a "Morning Menu" and a "Late Night Menu". The "Morning Menu" has a bigger selection of foods so I suggest going then. I visited the truck on great sunny Saturday morning. There was a pretty long line but we were expecting that. I ordered the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancake Bites.

This was so delicious! Like melt in your mouth good! They nailed the Red Velvet taste. This type of pancake bite had perfectly melted chocolate chips in the center. YUM! It also had just-right cream cheese frosting. They put a very light drizzle of maple syrup on it too and to finish it was dusted with powdered sugar. You're probably reading this and thinking, "WOW that sounds SO sweet! Like cavity sweet!" On the contrary it wasn't overly sweet at all! Just the perfect sweetness! The Buttermilk Truck also serves plain buttermilk pancakes bites.

Once again they nailed it. With every bite of this pancake you continue to figure out its ingredients. If you visit the truck make sure to ask them what their pancake bite flavor of the month is. I also got the Buttermilk Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich with applewood smoked bacon.

All biscuit sandwiches come with an egg then you choose your meat, applewood smoked bacon, tocino, or chicken apple sausage. You could really tell this biscuit was homemade (as is all of their other menu items). You can even request to have your egg cooked exactly how you want! As you can probably, I really like this food truck and want to go back!!! A word of advice if you are going to a food truck: Make sure (if you can) to arrive to the truck's location well before their scheduled time. This is because the crowds can get big, which means a long waiting time AND they might run out of food before you get to order! That wouldn't be too fun. So I encourage you guys to go out there and try this awesome truck! For more information on where the truck in going to be and for the full menu visit their website at www.buttermilktruck.com Let us know if you visit this truck and how you like it! Also let us know of any cool trucks you have tried and recommend!